Mid-Century Demo Day

Demo Day is always exciting, but it was a bit different in this house.  Unlike most homes, where we are tearing out lots of walls, we want to keep most of the original structure in this house.  In this house we're concentrating more on finishes and fixtures and investigating some potential problem areas.

So what were we worried about?  Well, this house was built back before a lot of modern insulation and air sealing became popular.  And with an indoor garden area, there was a high level of moisture.














As we started peeling back layers, our concerns were verified with patches of mold and mildew.  I have asthma and found that I couldn't enter the basement without an asthma attack, so I wasn't surprised when we found mold and mildew on the back of drywall and carpets.  We removed all organic material from the basement and I was immediately able to breather better!

See the black areas?  Squirrel latrines! 

Another concern was squirrels.  The house is surrounded by mature oak trees and there are acorns everywhere.  We had seen evidence that they had chewed their way into the house and we quickly discovered squirrel nests and acorns in a couple of spots.

There is a pocket door frame in there!!

But we found some nice surprises as well.  We aren't huge fans of bifold doors - like the ones between the dining room and den - but we thought we should keep them because they were original to the house.  So we were thrilled when we discovered the house originally had pocket doors between the two rooms.  We will restore them with new doors, that can disappear when not in use!

We want to update the kitchen and bathrooms, so took them back to the studs.  That allows us to update the plumbing & electrical, before we put new fixtures in.

And as usual, we donated everything we could to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore.  We practically filled the garage with the donations!  

And of course we saved a lot of the original items, to return them when we've finished the updates.  I love the waterfall butcher block counter from the kitchen, so that is safely stored away.  

We kept a lot of the special items - like lighting and this super cool phone,

medicine chests, faucets and my favorite - the laundry room roll away basket!  Is it crazy that I love this stuff so much?

Now the real work begins, putting the house back together again!

Pin It